Men’s golf star looks to conference championship, graduation

In two weeks, captain Greg Bowman and the rest of the men’s golf team will defend their conference championship title. With graduation around the corner for the senior Business Administration major, Bowman contemplates his future after McDaniel.

In championship play during his freshman and sophomore years, the team came in second place to Franklin & Marshall by a mere few strokes. Bowman, a Catonsville, Md., native, recalls last year’s championship as the perfect combination of team unity and talent.

“We had been together for three years and knew how each other played,” he said, adding that despite the individual nature of the sport, the team aspect is important. “The person in front you hits a good shot and sends all that good energy to you.”

Bowman feels he has been able to improve considerably since high school due to the competitive camaraderie of the team. Often they would make mini-bets to see who could outperform the other, which he says made it easier to improve his game.

Bowman incorporates his Spanish minor into his extracurricular activities. Every year for the past nine years he has traveled to Costa Rica to volunteer in mission work for the Catonsville United Methodist Church.

Senior Greg Bowman power washes the roof of a church during a volunteer trip to Costa Rica with his church.

“We do various construction projects and bible school for certain communities. My parents are the leaders of it and each year they take down about 60-70 people for a week in February,” he said.

After college, Bowman’s first priority is to pay off bills. Through a family connection, he has been offered a job in accounting and finance at the Northrop Grumman Corporation. But he knows eventually he will want to shift his career to include golf, possibly in a field such as sales or marketing.

Bowman’s dad grew up in Westminster, and his grandparents attended Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) and were married in Little Baker Chapel. After visiting and meeting with golf coach Scott Moyer, McDaniel was the only school that Bowman applied to.

Currently, he leads the team with a 76.7-stroke average and sits at five above par. He has three tournaments under his belt coming into the April 27 Centennial Conference Championships at the Blue Ridge Golf Club in Pennsylvania. If all goes well, he will end up once again at the national tournament in North Carolina.

Last year, he scored the lowest ever of any Centennial golfer at the NCAA championships. “That was amazing,” he said. “I felt like I was on a pro tour!”